Go Green

Spirit of Alaska FCU goes green.

At Spirit of Alaska, our policy is to improve environmental quality through wise business decisions. These include conserving energy, reducing or eliminating waste, recycling, and properly disposing of any remaining waste. We believe that our responsibility to prevent pollution is compatible with successful business objectives.

Going green, while at the same time improving our productivity, efficiency, and materials handling, requires regular review of operations; but we believe it can be done…and are doing it every day!

Here are some of the most recent things we have done

Solar Panels - the core of our green initiative

Have you noticed the solar panel arrays at our Gillam and Johansen branches? Here's a few specs on these investments in the future.

Sunny Portal - see in real-time the energy generated by the solar panels, represented by some great visual graphs. Photos are also viewable through the portal.

Gillam Panels: 3,500-watt, grid-interactive, solar electric system.

Johansen Panels: 2800-watt grid-interactive, solar electric system that tracks with the sun.

Both panels Include equipment for connection to GVEA's SNAP program, which links local individuals and businesses who want to produce renewable energy, such as solar and wind power, with local members who want to buy renewable power.

Green Star Standards

Our organization is actively working to achieve and maintain Green Star Standards and to be a model for other organizations and our community.

Johansen Branch

Our new flagship branch was built in 2011 using Green Star standards.

4 pane windows, R9-R12

Walls insulated to R50

Roof seamlessly insulated to R60

Dual feed (will accept fuel or natural gas), low temperature furnace

Radiant heat floors

Natural light sourced through large windows and overhead cupola

Locally sourced materials such as Alaskan lumber and stones

Consumer Loan Rate Discounts

Get rewarded with lower rate on your loan for incorporating Green activities into the loan process, such as:

Take a .15% discount for applying online (reduce paper use)

Take a .10% discount for setting up autopay at loan origination

Take a .25% discount for buying a newer, energy efficient vehicle

Take every discount, and they add up to .50% discount on your loan rate!

According to a recent report, about half of all U.S. households use online banking, with about half of those also paying bills online. If everyone started using these services on a regular basis, the results would be remarkable, such as:

More than 16 million trees would be spared.

Fuel consumption would drop by 26 million BTUs. That's enough to provide residential power to San Francisco for a year!

Air pollution would be reduced by 3.9 billion pounds of carbon dioxide equivalents—comparable to taking 355,015 cars off the road!

About 1.6 billion pounds of solid waste would be eliminated—equal to 56,000 fully loaded garbage trucks.